Donald Trump has HUGE plans for Doral

Thursday, March 08, 2012

DORAL, Fla. -- Donald Trump says he has friends who like to garden. He does, too, just in a much bigger way.Trump, along with his daughter, Ivanka, and golf course architect Gil Hanse, met with the media Thursday morning to discuss his plans for renovating the Doral Resort and Spa, which the Donald recently purchased for $150 million, which is practically a steal considering Morgan Stanley bought the property for $501 million in 2007.After the 2013 WGC-Cadillac Championship is complete, Trump said they'll close the course for six months and begin renovating the Blue Monster."I only buy if it's either the best or can be the best," Trump said. "And this is an example. I mean, Doral can be the absolute best."The Doral name will be kept, but will Trump add his name to the resort?"When we have spent the money, and when it's at the highest level of luxury, and the highest levels of golf ... then we are going to make the decision," Trump said.Translation: Are you kidding me? Of course! Hanse, who was also selected to design the 2016 Olympic course in Brazil, will try to bring back the original design elements to the course that have been made obsolete by today's power players."We'll try to create a golf course where angles are relevant again, and where it's important to get to a proper side to score as opposed to just hitting it as far as you possibly can," he said. "I think if you talk to a lot of players, that seems to be the strategy, or lack thereof, on this golf course now is to try to overpower it."In addition to the Blue Monster there are four other courses at Doral. Trump said at a minimum he plans to fix them all up, and he even teased that he might do something bigger."It's possible that we'll make them into one great course at some point down the road," he said. More on Trump taking over Doral:Detailed map of Hanse's plans | Q&A with Trump (Photo: Lynne Sladky/AP)